BATON ROUGE, LA – Several East Baton Rouge council members criticized St. George’s Uber partnership Friday, warning that the program provides no mechanism for officials, consultants, or contractors to gain backdoor access to public money.
“This is supposed to be public transportation,” said one council member. “Yet every dollar appears to go toward transporting the public. That is a dangerous precedent.”
St. George would subsidize Uber trips within city limits, allowing residents to pay reduced fares for rides they request and receive. Critics say the arrangement recklessly eliminates features of Baton Rouge transit, including empty buses, unexplained contracts, missing paperwork, and federal indictments.
The criticism comes months after EBR Metro Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr., former CATS chief administrator Pearlina Thomas and several contractors were indicted in an alleged conspiracy to misuse public money tied to CATS contracts.
Council members also worried that Uber’s digital records could make the money easy to track.
St. George rejected the criticism, insisting transportation money will continue being spent on the controversial practice of transporting people.
